Warner Bros. on Thursday released a deleted scene from “The Batman,” showing more of the Caped Crusader’s greatest nemesis, The Joker. The scene is from the latest movie based on the superhero, which hit theaters earlier this month.
The five-minute interaction features a grizzly clown Prince of Crime, played by Barry Keoghan, locked away in Arkham Asylum, while Batman, played by Robert Pattinson, seeks his help to solve Gotham City’s latest murder spree.
It might seem strange to cut out of the film such a lengthy scene between Batman and arguably the greatest villain in comic book history. But it’s a smart form of franchise building — one that Disney’s Marvel Studios has used successfully in dozens of films over the years.
As with Marvel’s famous post-credits scenes and bonus material leaked to the internet, the deleted The Batman scene sets the stage for the next film while the original film is still making money at the box office. (Warner Bros., like CNN, is owned by WarnerMedia.)
The strategy worked: The Joker became a trending topic on social media, and the video clip was clicked on millions of times. Keoghan’s Joker makes a brief appearance in the film, but the deleted scene whets fans’ appetites for the yet-to-be-announced sequel to the new The Batman franchise. And Warner Bros. didn’t really have to do anything.
It’s not a perfect waste, don’t want to use film marketing. Also, at 2 hours and 56 minutes, was there really room for another scene with the Joker?
The scene, which exudes serious Silence of the Lambs vibes, can be found when fans answer a series of riddles on rataalada.com – a website used in the film. One of these puzzles is: “Namely: a joker in the truest sense of the word”.
“The Batman” was a big hit for Warner Bros. this year, grossing more than $600 million at the worldwide box office.
The Batman franchise has grossed billions of dollars since 1989’s Batman, while the 2019 standalone Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix broke box office records before grossing more than $1 billion worldwide.